By Tiernan Ray

Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:

Apple (AAPL) shares are up $9.38, or 2.2%, at $439.50, after the company filed for a six-part bond offering through Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, which is expected to be in the neighborhood of $15 billion to $16 billion, according to various media reports this morning.

CNBC’s Seema Mody morning this morning reported that “Apple’s bond sale is on track to be the largest ever for a non-financial company.” She notes drug firm $72 billion pharma company AbbVie held the previous debt sale record at $14.75 billion. “Early indications are that this bond offering could be very popular with the Street,” said Mody.

My colleague Michael Aneironotes in a post this morning on the Income Investing blog that “this could be the ultimate in contemporary low-yield investing,” by which he means the bond coupon probably won’t be as high as the company’s 3% dividend yield.

Shares of International Business Machines (IBM) are up $1.47, or 0.7%, at $200.62, after the company said its board of directors authorized a $5 billion share repurchase program, on top of the company’s existing $6.2 billion share repurchase program, and increased the firm’s dividend by 12%, for 95 cents per share per quarter.

Shares of Best Buy (BBY) are up $2.70, or 11%, at $26.90, after Deutsche Bank’s Michael Baker raised his rating on the shares to Buy from Hold, citing continued cost cuts and possible “catalysts.” Baker raised his price target to $28 from $17.

Shares of Riverbed Technology (RVBD) are down 25 cents, or 1.7%, at $14.60, recouping some of the losses in after hours trading last night following a Q1 report that missed expectations, and a forecast for this quarter below consensus as well. Price targets and estimates are going down all around, although there are some defenders of the stock this morning.

JMP Securities’s Erik Suppiger, who maintains a Market Perform rating on the shares, cut his price target to $19 from $24, but writes today that “While the March quarter results were disappointing and the stock traded off 7% in the aftermarket, we believe the company sufficiently reset expectations to reflect the challenging market and the disruption from the integration of its OPNET acquisition.”

“In addition, we are encouraged that some key products are gaining momentum and we believe the Opnet acquisition will eventually provide a catalyst.”

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) are up 22 cents, or 0.7%, at $32.83, after Bernstein Research’s Mark Moerdler offered another upbeat note on the company’s cloud computing prospects, writing that comments to Bloomberg yesterday by executive Curt Anderson that the company’s “Azure” cloud services have surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue puts the offering well above most estimates, in his view.

Shares of Sprint-Nextel (S) are down 8 cents, or 1%, at $7.04, after Japan’s Softbank’s (9984JP) CEO Masayoshi Son this morning said, on the occasion of the company’s Q1 earnings report, that the company does not plan to raise its offer for the company in response to a competing offer from Dish Network (DISH). Son, according toBloomberg’s Mari Saito, remarked that Dish’s offer was “incomplete and illusory” and that “our price offer is better than theirs; Our timing is one year quicker at least. Our leverage is more healthy.”

Dish shares today are down 64 cents, or 1.6%, at $39.92, while shares of Sprint’s partner, Clearwire (CLWR), whose buyout by Sprint is supposed to be part of either deal, is up a penny at $3.45. (See yesterday’s post on Guggenheim Securities’s view on the Clearwire angle.)

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There are 3 comments

APRIL 30, 2013 11:23 A.M.

Mark wrote:

Apple will bury the Hedge Funds and will drive the price up to 500 in 5 days. The funds want/need the Dividend, and Apple will use their 60B cannon to make sure there is no manipulation of the stock. Apple will now do to the hedge funds what they did to Apple.

APRIL 30, 2013 11:27 A.M.

Ed wrote:

Cook's cash plan is a stroke of genius!

APRIL 30, 2013 1:13 P.M.

Anonymous wrote:

and NOTHING on BBRY move and all the press from other books on new prod launch.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.